⭐️ Eternal Shadow 🌙 Damian wayne ~~~~complete

Chapter 21: Leaving Hour

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The Tower felt too small.

Every hallway, every familiar corner she used to disappear into now felt like it had eyes. Conversations stopped when she entered a room. The weight of everything unsaid pressed against her ribs until she couldn't breathe.

So she made her decision.

Marceline stepped into the main common room just as dusk spilt through the windows, painting the walls gold and bruised violet. The entire team was there — Dick, Kory, Gar, Raven, even Damian leaning silently against the far wall, arms crossed like he already knew.

Perfect.

She stopped in the middle of the room, the obsidian charm heavy against her collarbone. Her voice came out quiet but steady.

"I'm leaving."

Heads snapped up. Gar blinked, Raven's book stilled mid-air, Dick's jaw tightened.

"Mars—"

"It's better if I do," she cut in. "For you. For me. You keep looking at me like I'm about to snap, like I'm one bad day away from becoming exactly what they wanted me to be."

The words hung heavy in the air.

"And maybe you're not wrong."

Raven shook her head, standing. "No one's asking you to be anything but you, Marceline."

"Aren't you?" she snapped before she could stop herself. "You don't trust me. None of you do."

Gar's voice was soft, cracking at the edges. "That's not true."

She laughed, sharp and aching. "You won't even let me train without an audience anymore."

Dick stepped forward, hands up like he was approaching a cornered animal. Maybe he was.

"You don't get to just run. We've fought for you, bled with you. We're a team, Mars."

"A team that watches me like a loaded gun."

Kory spoke then, voice warm, thick with empathy. "You belong here."

"No, I don't."

She turned toward the door, shadows twitching at the edges of her vision.

"I'll find somewhere else. Somewhere the League can't use me, and I can't hurt any of you."

"Marceline." Damian's voice — low, steady, the only one that made her pause.

She didn't turn.

"If you leave now, you'll regret it. And so will I."

Her throat tightened, but she forced a smirk. "You'll get over it."

The room was silent.

Until Gar spoke again, desperate, breaking through it.

"Mars, we're your family. Even if you're messed up. Hell, we're all messed up."

Raven's hand ghosted toward her, a flicker of shadow between them.

"You are not alone."

For the first time, her resolve cracked.

And maybe they saw it, because Dick's voice was gentler now.

"Let us fight for you. Stay."

Her fingers curled into fists at her sides.

"I... I don't know if I can."

"Then let us figure it out with you."

A long beat. Then another.

And slowly, Mars turned back around — not a yes, not yet. But a maybe.

And that was more than she'd meant to give.

The weight of the room closed in again — every glance, every word, every unspoken expectation and memory of blood on her hands.

She couldn't do it anymore.

Her knees buckled before she could stop them, a ragged sob ripping out of her throat as she crumpled to the floor. The obsidian charm slipped from her fingers, clattering against the tile like a sharp echo.

"Marceline—" Dick started to move, but it was Raven who knelt beside her first.

The tears came like a flood, months of held-in grief and guilt and terror breaking through the dam she'd built brick by stubborn brick.

"I can't—" she choked out between sobs. "I can't keep pretending I'm okay. I don't know how to fix this—I don't know how to stop being what they made me—"

Raven's arms were around her before the words finished, steady and grounding. The others followed in their own way. Kory's hand brushed her hair back, gentle. Gar crouched down close, his own eyes glassy. Even Dick sank down beside her, his face drawn tight but soft with understanding.

"You don't have to fix it alone," Gar whispered.

Mars shook her head violently. "I'm not worth it. You should've left me there. I ruin everything—I ruin everyone—"

"No." Damian's voice, sharp and quiet, cut through the panic spiraling in her chest.

When she looked up, his expression was the closest thing to broken she'd ever seen on him.

"You don't get to say that. Not about yourself. Not to us."

And then — she wasn't sure who moved first, her or him — but Damian was on his knees in front of her, one hand closing around her wrist so tightly it almost hurt.

"I should've pulled you out of there sooner. I should've stopped them. I should've stayed."

Her heart cracked in two.

And in a small, shaking voice that didn't sound like hers, she whispered,

"I was so scared."

Damian's jaw clenched. "I know."

And when she leaned forward, shoulders wracked with sobs, it was his arms that caught her this time.

For the first time in months — no Tower walls, no missions, no Ra's, no League, no shadows between them — Marceline cried until she couldn't breathe, until her throat was raw and her body ached.

And none of them let go.

Not even once.

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